Poll: 43% of young adult voters have positive view of sharia law

Americans under 30 are significantly more likely than the broader electorate to view sharia law favorably, with a new poll revealing a substantial generational gap concerning the Islamic legal system.

Conducted by Our Republic and Rasmussen Reports, the poll found that 43% of likely U.S. voters ages 18–24 and 39% of those ages 25–29 have a positive opinion of sharia law, compared with 21% of all likely voters. Fifty-seven percent of voters overall said they have a negative opinion.

“These results reveal a striking generational divide in Americans’ attitudes toward sharia. While a clear majority of voters overall have a negative view of sharia and an overwhelming majority oppose allowing it to become the legal code of an American community, large numbers of younger Americans hold very different views,” Justin Haskins, president of Our Republic, said.

The survey of 1,026 likely voters was fielded Sept. 20 by Pulse Opinion Research, using phone and online interviews, and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points. Respondents were told that sharia is “a system of Islamic religious principles and law, derived primarily from the Quran and the teachings and practices of Muhammad, that addresses matters including religious practice, personal conduct, family life, finance, and often civil and criminal law,” and were asked whether they have a positive or negative opinion of it. The question measures favorability, not support for adopting sharia in the U.S.

Overall, 55% of respondents said sharia poses a greater threat to America’s future than traditional Christianity, while 13% said Christianity does. Forty-three percent said sharia is a greater threat than America’s alliance with Israel, and 25% said the alliance is.

Among Democrats, 26% had a positive view of sharia. A plurality of Democrats, 32%, said the Israel alliance is a greater threat than sharia, compared with 23% who chose sharia. Asked to compare the threat posed by sharia with traditional Christianity, 34% of Democrats chose sharia, 16% chose Christianity, and 41% said neither is a threat.

In France, the country with the highest population of Muslims in Europe (7%), a survey of Muslims by the polling firm Ifop found rising support for placing religious rules above civil law. 

Commissioned by the magazine Écran de Veille and based on telephone interviews with 1,005 Muslims aged 15 and older living in metropolitan France in August and September 2025, the study found that 44% of French Muslims would prioritize religious rules over French law, up from 28% in 1995. Forty-six percent said Islamic law should be applied in the countries where they live, including 15% who said it should be applied in full. Among Muslims under 35, 57% prioritized religious rules over French law on family matters.

Similarly, Le JDD reported that 59% of Muslims ages 15–24 favor the application of sharia in non-Muslim countries, compared with 38% of those over 50. The survey measured attitudes only, not behavior or support for violence.

Legal immigration from Muslim-majority countries to the U.S. has fallen sharply under the Trump administration. Zeale News reported Sept. 30 that immigrant visas and refugee admissions from 45 Muslim-majority countries fell 96% between December 2024 and February 2026, according to a Cato Institute analysis, compared with a 36% decline from other nations.